Many industries commonly require data including confidential information of customers and other business entities to be entered into a user interface. Confidential information including social security numbers, credit card numbers, medical identification numbers, bank account numbers, and telephone numbers must be entered, viewed, and/or edited on a routine basis in a wide variety of environments ranging from private work areas to public places. Accordingly, many opportunities exist for misappropriation of confidential information displayed on computer screens, cellular phones, automatic teller machines, and the like.
Various methods and devices are available for hiding confidential information from bystanders that may be able to view the confidential information, and particularly, nefarious individuals who are attempting to obtain the confidential information for improper or illegal uses. For users of devices that are intended to protect confidential data, the ability to quickly and efficiently enter, view, and/or edit information while adequately protecting the information is a challenge. As the protection measures for securing information on a device increase, the usability of the device typically decreases. For example, a currently available device may immediately obscure all characters as they are typed into a data field by a user. Accordingly it is quite difficult for a bystander to determine what characters are being typed, however, the user may also find it difficult and inefficient to conduct data entry, viewing, and/or editing.